Development of thermal energy storage concrete

In this paper, a two-step procedure to produce thermal energy storage concrete (TESC) is described. At the first step, thermal energy storage aggregates (TESAs) were made from porous aggregates absorbing phase changing materials (PCMs). At the second step, TESC was produced with a normal mixing method and using TESAs. An adequate amount of PCM can be incorporated into concrete by the two-step procedure. It can be seen experimentally that the energy storage capacity of the TESC was comparable with that of a commercially available PCM. The experimental results showed that the geometrical features of the porous structure of the aggregates had significant effect on their absorbing ability of the PCM. Aggregates with large pore connectivity factor and transport tunnel in boundary part can absorb more PCM. It was also found that the phase changing behavior was affected by the volume fraction of PCM in concrete. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.